William is a friend who, like me, graduated early this year with a honours degree in environmental science from Makerere University Uganda.
But like many other graduates in Uganda, William met face to face with the unemployment scourge. He searched left and right but to no fruition.
Eight months after we graduated, he gets an opportunity not to do what he studied for but to work in Planet Supermarket on Bombo road Kampala.
But there is more to this - William didn't want his colleagues to know that he was employed in a supermarket.
Whenever i went to the supermarket, he hid or pretended to be picking a certain product.
But i approached him recently and told him "Never scorn your job. It is giving what to eat."
Well, over to you William.
In Uganda, the unemployment rate has reached the highest of all time with more than 80,000 graduates that leave university, less than half get employed.
And government seems to have taken note.
In the 2011/12 financial year, government of Uganda set aside Shs 25bn youth fund to help youth entrepreneurs with capital. But who got this money, no one knows.
"We have never seen this money. The process of getting it is very tedious," Paul, unemployed graduate with a Quantitative Economics degree told this blog.
There is more coming. The ministry Gender has set aside about Shs 262m for the youth projects - whether it will reach the intended people, it is a question of another day.
With all this happening, many youth have turned to gambling - with sports betting at the fore. They hope they will make a quick buck here. Is it possible - no one knows.
While William got an opportunity, he counts himself the luckiest. But not all can be lucky...The youth unemployment puzzle continues
